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How to empty the room in one minute

Berlin is not exactly a pop metropolis. In the club music domain,
however, things are different. The Love Parade, Tresor (club and record label), DJs Richie Hawtin and Jeff
Mills: several big names are associated with Berlin. And minor upsets â
Tresor's lack of a home, Love Parade's cancellation this year - don't
change this. Because improvisation is all part of the business for
clubs here. The funfair of the Love Parade, with its million scantily
clad, rainbow-haired fans, provides annual proof that techno has
entered mainstream culture. But the exciting stuff is happening
elsewhere.

Jan Joswig. Photo:Gene Glover

The
Berlin senate speaks proudly of the 60 percent market share held by
music companies seated in the federal capital. The lion's share of the
business is in the hands of the majors: Universal and Sony. The Berlin
scene seems unconcerned about Sony's decision to re-locate, following
its fusion with BMG. "Universal, Sony and MTV have given the city
nothing, at least nothing in the world of music production or clubs,"
says Jan Joswig, music and fashion editor of Berlin's cultural magazine
de:bug. The Senate knows what keeps Berlin lively, what makes the city
famous abroad and who's feeding the balls to the big companies, as it
so prosaicly puts it: "The unique network of small, innovative labels
(...) and the creative, medium-sized music scene, particularly in the
areas of techno and electronic music." That something like 70
electronic labels from Berlin and the region have joined the
association of independent recording artists (VUT), provides a sense of
how extensive this activity is.

Every day, so many new records
and CDs from electronic Berlin push their way onto the market that even
insiders have a struggle to orientate through the jungle of new
releases. How should an outsider find an inroad amongst all the
creative fragmentation? What makes it even harder is that while Cologne
is the home of minimal techno and Frankfurt, house, there is no readily
identifiable "sound of Berlin". Jörg Heidemann of MDM â an
international distribution network, sees this as an advantage: "Berlin
is more open than its competitors. Tresor records does techno, Basic
Channel does Dub and Scape minimal electronic. So the stuff that comes
from Berlin is by definition interesting and less easy to pigeon-hole.
What's missing is a festival or fair with a major impact abroad."

Daniel Meteo

The
annual label festival Marke B attempts to give audiences an overview of
the scene, to present Berlin producers to the world and to bring them
together. This year it took place at the end of May and 44 labels
attended. There were concerts and DJ sets at the front of the Maria
club, and stands at the back. While enjoying the music or looking
through the well-presented publications, visitors have an ideal
opportunity to check out the Berlin electronic scene. The biggest
surprises came from talking to participants about their day-to-day
lives. "There's often only one person working for the smaller labels:
self-exploitation for the love of the music," says Gudrun Gut,
co-founder of Marke B. "The labels often organise events as well, or
else they are themselves musicians or DJs." A typical example is Daniel
Meteo, the third Marke B organiser alongside Thomas Fehlmann: "I try to
organise the music around me and to live from it. I do bookings, I'm a
musician, producer and DJ. I also manage the label Shitkatapult and I
have my own label as well, Meteosound. I basically work alone but I've
built networks with other people. We're all fighting for our survival,
and we produce music." This year Marke B was not as well attended as in
the past: it could be that the labels now have adequate networks of
their own, and that the audiences are fully satisfied with the end products.
It might make more sense for the festival to tour in order to export
the dynamic Berlin scene. The organisers have already come up with the
idea and the music producers are demanding it, so it's just waiting to
happen.

Ellen Allien

No label exists without musicians, and Berlin is
certainly spoilt for choice. Berlin is in. More and more musicians from
all over the world are moving to the city, such a concentration of
creative musical talent exists nowhere else. In electronic music, this
is a great asset: no hierarchy and lots of cooperative projects. The
most recent prominent newcomer is the producer and DJ Richie Hawtin,
who came over with some musicians from the USA and has founded an
offshoot of his label m-nus in Berlin. Like jazz in the old days, the
electronic genre in the USA is strictly marginal. Europe's sales
markets, concerts and recognition draw the musicians here. And then
there are the "soft" factors. The lack of a curfew, and breakfast at
any time of the day or night. "It's really tolerant here," says English
singer Jamie Lidell. "You can go to a stylish restaurant looking like a
fucked-up hippy, and normally nobody cares." Ellen Allien, DJ and label
boss, describes the atmosphere in her home town: "Berlin lets everyone
breathe." Berlin's trump card is the cheap cost of living. Out of
London, Paris or San Francisco with their unaffordable rents and into a
huge apartment in Neukölln, Friedrichshain or Kreuzberg. Most
established musicians hang onto a place in Berlin and spend most of
their time on tour. For newcomers, more interested in making music than
profit, Berlin is a chance to live cheap. There's even space for a
studio within your own flat. It wins time to develop, to work up to a
major release.

Where it all comes together is in the club.
Musicians and DJs earn their livelihood there and develop ideas. The
audience provides feedback and works on its own plans. Videos, flyers
and fashion create links to related art forms. Berlin's major clubs
like WMF, Berghain / Panoramabar or the former Tresor even have people
excited abroad. Smaller clubs like ausland, nbi or Lovelite create
their own niches with unusual programmes. The Club Commission, founded
in 2000, has 50 member clubs and and party organisers. Every weekend
there are even more parties and concerts. In short: club culture is
Berlin's strongest face. The roots reach back to the 1980s when the
Berlin underground experimented in legendary locations like Fischlabor,
UFO or Ex'n'Pop and DJ Westbam was already pumping electronic music
into the metropolis. When the Wall fell, space was created for new
ideas. Unclaimed real estate served as squats, housing associations
provided temporary cultural spaces. Techno became the soundtrack of
this swarming. Dreams that ended in disappointment in other places,
could be lived out in East Berlin: to the delight of all night
creatures, the clubs formed a blooming landscape. Some of today's
established clubs like the WMF or Maria stem from this tradition, but
the scene is still mainly influenced by the 1990s â through the
emphasis on subculture, the ambitious music programs, the affordable
prices.

Maarten

Even today the scene is extremely lively. Organisers
are continuously coming up with new ideas and new concepts. Currently
the most talented location scout is a Dutchman called Maarten. The
trained urban architect is full of surprises, using spectacular
locations like ship hangars, empty office lofts and the prayer room in
a former mosque. The fascinating thing is how comfortably the rooms are
decorated for one-off events or very short-term happenings. "We take
what's there and use it to our advantage. Our low-budget approach lets
us operate pretty much risk free. What we don't spend doesn't have to
be made back. The events show deadlocked proprietors what can be done with their
locations - adverts for space in even the most average offices always just show golfers in ties. But among the people who come to our events are often future tenants. I'm well aware that my work
encourages gentrification," he says. In the meantime, these and similar
events with primarily student audiences offer a point of entry for aspiring musicians
and DJs. "I think it's a good thing we're always pushing the
authorities, the proprietors and our guests. For example the 'Feedback
Orchestra' almost emptied a full house in under a minute, that's how
shrill and experimental their music was. Now that's what I call
culture!"

The press is another major factor which prepares the
ground for a productive music scene. Groove and de:bug magazines focus on electronic music in Berlin and around the world. Each
month they publish artists' portraits, background info and reams
of record reviews.

So
in fact the music industry and club culture can be viewed as one of the
few dynamic sectors in Berlin. That's why local politicians and
authorities are doing so much to improve conditions. From 2000
to 2003, 7 million euros in subsidies
flowed into the industry as part
of a "music business initiative". Compared with a major subsidy culture
like France or Switzerland, this sum seems almost laughable. Yet in
view of Berlin's ailing financial situation, its very existence is a
success. The project funded, among other things, Marke B and other
Berlin label stands at music trade fairs â initiatives which
have proved a success. By contrast the "SourceMusic" platform for
licensing rights, which it also funded, doesn't seem to be getting off
the ground. The major gain is that a positive relationship has been
built
up between the music makers and politicians. "The system does not
attack the
scene, it supports it," says Ellen Allien. And club owners say the
same. The city helps find locations, and mediates with the district councils.
"Unfortunately only the police still think of us as part of the
underworld," says the owner of one major club.

What is the
result? As far as Berlin is concerned, it has made a major impact abroad. "The reactions I
hear from other cities and countries are very positive," says Tanja
Mühlhans, who oversees the "music business initiative" in the Berlin
government. "Berlin has an enormous appeal, especially for people from
the creative industries." But the competition is not sleeping.
Barcelona has the Sonar Festival and the Mediterranean. London has popular music that stretches back decades, and a lot of money flowing about as
well. In just a few years Montreal has also become a front runner,
thanks to the Mutek festival and massive support from cultural funds.
Berlin simply competes with what it's got: space, or rather clubs, a low
cost of living, a plethora of artists and benevolent (but broke)
authorities. Concrete figures on the how local talent is profiting from
Berlin's booming scene are not to be had. But in contrast to the
majors, the many sided Indie-music scene is stable and growing. One
thing is certain, Berlin's music artists and entrepreneurs have long
known how to get by on sparse resources. Innovation and doing your own
thing are a day-to-day affair, where the watchwords are innovation and
unconventional solutions. As de:bug editor Jan Joswig put it
succinctly, "the Berlin-feeling, this libertarian disregard for
white-collar-business, is what makes the city so attractive for outsiders".

T.Raumschmiere

At some point, however, even the most stalwart of struggling
idealists
loses steam. Daniel Meteo: "As a musician I thrive on
the new faces and constant change. But Berlin has minimal
cashflow. If you have to pay your bills, this makes for a non-stop
burden." A change has taken place however. Although people who do
creative work for
little money still earn more respect in Berlin than in other cities,
even the Indie structures have a professional attitude these days. They
need to be able to count on people they cooperate with: losers and
posers are not welcome. But as opposed to a few years ago, success
does not automatically mean betraying your origins and forfeiting your
authenticity. A good example is producer T. Raumschmiere. With the
battle cry "Stay anti!" he has transferred his youthful love for punk into
the world of electronic music. At the same time he has run the label
shitkatapult for years, and put out more than sixty albums. He himself
will release a second album with global player Mute label (Depeche Mode etc.).
For the others there's always the principle of hope â T. Raumschmiere
isn't the only one to show that the leap from Berlin's self-exploiting
underground to a more or less opulent profitability is entirely in the
cards. And until that day the motto holds: stick together and keep on
creating!

*

The article originally appears in the Musikwoche.

Oliver Ilan Schulz is a freelance journalist electronic music critic living in Berlin.